Las Chicas, Los Chicos y los Maniquís Restaurant is located in Hotel Axel Madrid in Madrid, Spain. The objective of the design was to create an atmosphere of liberty and diversion, with a certain disruptive touch, which invited a varied clientele to enter the public areas of the hotel to enjoy the gastronomical offer.

The design of the Axel Hotel on Atocha Street in Madrid superposes a series of historic references forming a complex and explosive tandem. Firstly, the privileged location in the very midst of Madrid’s literary neighborhood. Secondly, the palatial 19th century building in which it is located. An important role in the design choices was also played by some of Madrid’s most traditional and popular characteristics.

In order to achieve this atmosphere, the most important strategy in the design was the use of color, an element which accompanies you throughout all the areas of the hotel, which is applied with different character and material nature in each zone.

What was originally the entrance to the building for the horse-drawn carriages is today the entrance to the hotel and divides the most public part of the restaurant into two rooms. Both spaces are designed under the same concept: a carefree atmosphere with a distinctly colorful character employing large graphic elements of color with references to the “Movida Madrileña” and the visual universe created by Almodovar, a well-known Spanish movie director.

The name of the restaurant, “Las Chicas, Los Chicos y Los Maniquies,” was the title of one of the songs, which accompanied the “Movida Madrileña” and whose lyrics are still part of Spain’s popular culture today.

The main characters of this colorful universe are the two large red bars presiding over the two rooms. During the morning, they function as buffet tables for breakfast, and at night, as snack and beer bars -- in the purest Madrid style.

Another important element of the popular culture of Madrid is the classic neighborhood stores with their large window advertisements, attractive names and incredible offers. Sashes, hats and elaborate mannequins fill some of the scarce shop windows still left in this part of the city. Strange as it may seem, Atocha Street has managed to keep intact some of its more classic shops, to which the design wanted to pay sincere homage to, filling the space with large luminous posters with attractive commercial names.

In the lower part of the hotel, the restaurant has three small interconnected dining rooms where color is the indisputable principal element. Each room achieves its own personality by use of a single color: red, green and pink. Their walls covered in textiles, as well as the chromatic choices, seek to reference the noble rooms of 19th century palatial homes.